How to buy off-plan property in Dubai, step by step (2026)

Buying off-plan in Dubai means buying a unit from a developer before it is built, usually on a payment plan that runs through construction. The process is more regulated than many buyers expect. Each step has a legal anchor, and most of the checks can be done by you, for free, before any money moves.

Who can buy is the first question, and the answer is broad. Under Article 4 of Law No. 7 of 2006 non-UAE nationals may hold freehold ownership without time restriction in areas determined by the Ruler. Those freehold areas cover most of what is marketed off-plan. UAE and GCC nationals can own anywhere in the emirate. You do not need to be resident in the UAE, and you do not need a local bank account to buy, although you will need one, or an international transfer route, to pay instalments.

The headline price is not the budget. An off-plan purchase in Dubai carries roughly 4% to 8% of the property value in acquisition costs, and the largest by far is the 4% Dubai Land Department registration fee. Our guide to the true cost of buying off-plan in Dubai breaks down every line; the short version is below.

Two things decide how much of this must be cash.

• Fees are cash. Since 1 February 2025 UAE banks no longer finance the 4% DLD fee or broker commission as part of a mortgage. The change was communicated to lenders and reported across the UAE press rather than issued as a public circular.
• Construction is usually cash. Most banks lend on off-plan only at or near handover, and off-plan loan-to-value is generally capped around 50% under the Central Bank's mortgage regulations. So the instalments due before handover are normally funded from your own money, and the balance at handover is funded either from cash or from a mortgage that will be underwritten against a valuation at that time.

A practical budget therefore has three numbers: the cash needed on the day you reserve (booking deposit plus the 4% plus admin), the total of instalments due during construction, and the balance due at handover. Our payment plan calculator lays these out for any plan, and our guide to off-plan payment plans explains the structures you will be offered, from 60/40 to post-handover plans.

If the purchase is linked to residency, decide that now too. A property worth AED 2M or more can support a ten-year Golden Visa, and an Oqood registration is accepted in place of a title deed for that route; the detail is in our Golden Visa guide.

Shortlisting is about location, unit, plan and timing; our project directory and the monthly UAE off-plan market snapshot are a starting point. Checking is a separate job, and it is the step that protects your money. It takes about five minutes on the Dubai Land Department's own tools.

1. Find the project on DLD. Open the Project Status Enquiry service, also inside the free Dubai REST app, and search by project name or number. It shows the project number, status, registration and projected completion dates, completion percentage and site inspection photographs.
2. Check the developer. The same record names the developer and its registration details. A developer selling off-plan must be registered with DLD and must file a bundle of documents before selling, including the land title deed and a standard sale contract, under Article 6 of Law No. 8 of 2007.
3. Read the escrow block. It names the escrow bank and account for that project. Keep it; you will compare it against every payment request you receive.
4. Check the advert and the agent. Off-plan advertising needs written DLD authorisation, which is why genuine listings carry a Trakheesi permit number. A RERA-registered broker has a BRN, and both can be checked in Dubai REST.

If you are asked for money on a project you cannot find on DLD, ask where it is being held and on what terms, because the escrow protections in step 6 attach to the registered project account. Our guide to off-plan buyer protection walks through the escrow checks in more detail.

There are two ways in.

• Expression of interest (EOI). Before a launch, developers or their brokers may take an EOI to place you in the queue for unit selection. Amounts and refund terms are set by each developer, so get them in writing: what you are paying, to whom, whether it is refundable if you do not proceed, and whether it is credited against the booking deposit.
• Reservation and booking deposit. Once the project is launched you choose a unit, sign a reservation or booking form and pay the booking deposit. Across the projects we have analysed, booking deposits run from 2% to 20% of the price, with about 10% the most common.

The booking deposit is not the whole cheque. On the day you reserve, or within days of it, you also fund the 4% DLD fee and the developer's administration charge, so a 10% booking needs roughly 14% to 15% of the price in cash on a primary purchase before any other costs, or about 16% where an agency commission also applies (see our payment plans guide). Pay by bank transfer to the account the developer specifies, and check that it matches the escrow account you saw on Dubai REST. Expect know-your-customer checks at this point: developers and brokers are subject to UAE anti-money laundering rules, and real estate purchases paid in cash of AED 55,000 or more, or with virtual assets, are reportable to the Financial Intelligence Unit.

Before you sign the reservation form, compare the payment schedule on it with the one in the brochure. A plan quoted at launch can differ from the one written into an individual reservation form, and it is the form that binds you. Developers' current incentives, such as DLD fee contributions or extended plans, are listed on our offers page.

The SPA is the contract. It is drafted by the developer, and the law requires the developer to file a standard sale contract with DLD before it starts selling. There is no single government template that every off-plan SPA follows, so the clauses that matter vary between developers. Read these before you sign:

• Unit and specification. Unit number, floor, area, layout and the finishing specification, with what happens if the final area differs from the plan.
• Payment schedule. The amount and trigger for each instalment, whether by date or by construction milestone, and the escrow account details.
• Anticipated completion date and grace period. Read them together as one deadline. Grace periods are typically six to twelve months.
• Default and termination. What happens if you miss an instalment, the notice the developer must give, and how the statutory retention limits apply.
• Assignment. The percentage you must have paid before you can resell, and the fees.
• Defects. The defects liability period for mechanical, electrical and plumbing works, commonly 12 months.
• Service charges. The estimated rate and whether a master community charge sits on top.

Many developers now send the reservation form and SPA for electronic signature, which is what makes a purchase from abroad straightforward. Independent legal review of the SPA costs little relative to the price and is worth doing on any purchase you would struggle to walk away from.

Oqood is DLD's interim real property register, created by Law No. 13 of 2008. It records your rights in a unit that does not yet physically exist. This is the step that gives your purchase legal existence: Article 3 of that law makes an off-plan sale that is not registered on the interim register void.

You do not register it yourself. The developer files the sale through DLD's developer portal. DLD's initial sale registration service sets out what is involved:

• Documents: the signed sale and purchase contract, and a copy of the buyer's Emirates ID or, for a non-resident, passport.
• Fee: 4% of the sale value, listed as 2% for each side, plus knowledge and innovation fees of AED 10 each. Under Executive Council Resolution No. 30 of 2013 the split applies unless the parties agree otherwise, and on an off-plan purchase the buyer almost always pays the full 4%. A "DLD fee waiver" promotion means the developer is paying it for you, not that the fee is removed.
• Deadline: the contract must be registered within 90 days of signing.
• Result: a provisional registration e-certificate, commonly called the Oqood certificate.

Ask the developer for your Oqood certificate and keep it. It is your evidence of ownership until handover, it is what a resale buyer or a bank will ask for, and it is accepted for the Golden Visa in place of a title deed. The 4% is paid once. When the Oqood converts to a title deed at completion, only issuance and administration fees apply.

Every instalment you pay goes into the project's escrow account. Under Law No. 8 of 2007 that account is opened in the name of the project, not the developer, is used only for that project's construction, and cannot be attached by the developer's creditors. Each project has its own account. Money is released to the developer in tranches as an independent engineer certifies construction progress, and DLD describes the account as the bank account into which all amounts collected from off-plan buyers are deposited.

In practice:

• Pay only to the escrow account. Compare every IBAN against the escrow details on Dubai REST. A request to pay a personal account, a general company account or an overseas account is not a legitimate variation.
• Know your triggers. Instalments are either date-based or milestone-based. Milestone instalments depend on certified progress, so they move if construction moves; date-based ones do not.
• Keep proof of every payment. Receipts from the developer and your bank confirmations are what reconcile your account at handover.
• Do not fall behind without talking to the developer. If you default, Law No. 19 of 2020 sets what the developer may keep, according to how far the project has progressed. On termination that is up to 40% of the unit value above 60% completion and up to 25% below it, and above 80% completion the developer may instead keep the contract, retain what was paid and claim the balance.

During construction your job is to watch, not to wait. Dubai REST shows the project's certified completion percentage and site inspection photographs, updated by DLD inspections, so you can see progress without relying on marketing updates.

Delay is the most common way an off-plan purchase departs from plan, so it is worth knowing how it works before it happens.

• The grace period is part of the contract. The SPA states an anticipated completion date and a grace period, typically six to twelve months. Handover within that window is not a breach.
• After the grace period, you have options. Once it expires without handover, the developer is in breach, and UAE civil law lets the buyer seek either performance or termination with compensation. Note that the Civil Transactions Law was replaced by Federal Decree-Law No. 25 of 2025 from 1 June 2026, so article numbers in older guidance no longer match.
• If construction never starts or the project is cancelled. Where construction never commenced for reasons beyond the developer's control, or RERA cancels the project, the buyer is entitled to a full refund through the escrow procedure.
• Payment plans tied to milestones move with the build. A delayed project usually means delayed milestone instalments too, which softens the cash impact. Date-based instalments keep running.

The full treatment, including the Special Tribunal for unfinished and cancelled projects, is in our buyer protection guide.

Handover begins when the authorities issue the building's completion certificate and the developer sends you a handover notice. The notice sets out the final amount due and the steps to take the keys. A typical sequence:

1. Final statement and payment. The developer issues a statement of the balance due, which may include the handover instalment, any adjustment for a change in final area, utility connection charges and the first service charge payment. If you are using a mortgage, this is when the bank values the unit and releases funds. Since the bank lends against its valuation at that time, not your purchase price, a valuation below your price means the gap is paid in cash. It helps to start the mortgage process well before the expected handover date.
2. Snagging inspection. Inspect the unit, ideally with a professional snagging company, before signing the handover acceptance. List every defect in writing. Defects documented at inspection remain the developer's responsibility to fix; the defects liability period in your SPA covers what appears afterwards.
3. Keys and access. On signing the handover documents you receive keys, access cards and the building's move-in rules.
4. Title deed. The Oqood registration converts to a title deed in your name. No second 4% applies; only title-deed issuance and administration fees. If you have a mortgage, the bank's charge is registered against the title.
5. Utilities. Open a DEWA account in your name for electricity and water, which requires a refundable security deposit. If the building is on district cooling, open a separate account with the cooling provider. Empower publishes a demand charge of AED 750 per refrigeration ton per year, payable whether or not the unit is occupied.
6. Service charges. From handover you pay your share of the building's annual service charges. Under Law No. 6 of 2019 the charge is calculated on the ratio of your unit's area to the whole property, and the management entity may not charge owners without RERA approval of the budget. DLD has confirmed that the owner remains liable even when a tenant is in occupation.

Statutory cover continues after handover. The escrow agent holds back 5% of the account for one year after completion as a defects buffer, and structural liability runs for ten years.

Not every buyer holds to completion. Selling an off-plan unit before handover is done by assignment: your buyer takes over your position on the SPA and the Oqood register, pays you what you have paid plus any premium, and takes on the remaining instalments.

• Threshold. Most developers allow assignment once you have paid about 30% to 40% of the price, some 50%.
• Developer consent. You need a no objection certificate, typically AED 1,000 to 5,250 plus VAT, and some developers charge a transfer fee.
• Your buyer pays DLD again. The new buyer pays 4% on the resale price.
• Cost. All in, exiting before handover costs roughly 7% to 11% of the sale price, which is the appreciation you need just to break even.

The mechanics, timing windows and pricing are in our guide to selling off-plan before handover.

Many off-plan buyers in Dubai live abroad, and the process is built for it.

• Signing. Many developers send the reservation form and SPA for electronic signature, and the developer registers the Oqood itself, so no visit to DLD is needed for a primary purchase.
• Paying. Instalments are international bank transfers to the escrow account. Check the IBAN each time, and keep the transfer confirmations, since currency conversion and bank charges can leave small differences that need reconciling.
• Power of attorney. If a signature in person is needed, for example at a trustee office on an assignment or at handover, you can appoint a representative. A power of attorney signed outside the UAE is generally notarised in your country, legalised or apostilled and attested for use in the UAE, then translated into Arabic. Make it specific to the property and the acts you are authorising.
• Remote transfers. For transfers of completed property, DLD has offered a remote registration system with audio-visual identification of the parties since 2020.
• Handover. Snagging and key collection can be done by your representative or a snagging company, and DEWA accounts can be opened online.

The transaction is quick; the building is not. Reservation and SPA signature typically happen within days to a few weeks of each other, and DLD expects the Oqood registration within 90 days of signing. Construction then typically runs two to four years from launch to the anticipated completion date, plus any grace period. Handover itself, from notice to keys, usually takes a few weeks, longer if a mortgage is involved. The title deed follows once the developer has completed the building's registration with DLD.

Off-plan buyers in Dubai have more statutory protection than in many markets, but the protection covers specific risks, not all of them. A neutral summary:

The pattern is clear. The legal framework is designed to protect your payments and your registered interest, and it does that well when the money goes into the registered escrow account. It does not protect you from the market. Prices can move between reservation and handover, a bank may value the unit below your price, rents may differ from projections, and before you reach the resale threshold your money is committed. Those are the risks to model, and they are the same for every developer.

1. Have I found the project on DLD Project Status, and does its escrow account match the one I am asked to pay?
2. What is the total cash needed on the day I reserve, including the 4% and admin fees, in one number?
3. How will I fund the handover balance, and what happens if the valuation is below my price?
4. What are the anticipated completion date and the grace period, read together?
5. At what percentage paid may I assign, and what does the NOC cost?
6. Is the EOI or booking deposit refundable, and on what terms?
7. What are the estimated service charges, and is the building on district cooling?

Browse current projects and developer offers with these questions in hand. None of this is personal financial advice; for decisions specific to your circumstances, take independent legal and financial advice.